Hello! As many of you know, I am currently in Europe for Frontrunners. The past two months have been amazing, and I want to say thank you to everyone who helped me be able to do this. I am now approaching Module 2, which starts mid-December. I’m currently in talks with the Western Australian Deaf Society for doing an internship with them. This internship will not be paid, and I will need to pay for room, board, and the flight there. I am able to cover part of the expenses but cannot do it all, which is why I am asking for some help again. Any little bit helps! Thanks!
German and Dutch Holiday [VIDEO]
My Sign Name’s Story
Before I came to Europe, I told people I had no sign name (technically I did, but I didn’t like it for several reasons). I told people to give me a new sign name, but they kept putting it off and just fingerspelling it… Until I came to Frontrunners. They got tired of spelling my name and saying I had no sign name very quickly, so they gave me one. You can see me signing it here. I tell the short story in the video, but the longer story is this:
I was flying to Europe for the very first time, from Rochester, NY to Toronto, Canada, then to Copenhagen, Denmark. I arrived in Copenhagen with no problem, headed straight to baggage claim to wait for my large duffel bag. After waiting for a long while, and seeing no one from my flight still there, I went up to the help desk. They had no clue what had happened to my bag, and I couldn’t really wait any longer because I had a bus to catch. I gave them contact info for Castberggård and left. They said that they’d deliver it to Castberggård once they found it, which was very nice of them. Since this was my first day at my new school, there was a lot of meeting new people. I was constantly saying, “Hi, my name is [fs:R-O-G-A-N], no sign name.” European signers despise spelling and try to do it as little as possible, especially for names. It didn’t take long for them to give me one, in just a couple of days in fact. They had a different one than the one I have now, but I told them that it wouldn’t work in ASL, because it’s a sign we use often. So my new sign name ended up being half of the sign for “lost” because of the misadventures with my bag. Three days after I’d arrived in Europe, my bag showed up! I was very relieved that it wasn’t lost forever, especially since the majority of my clothes were in it. While going over it, I noticed the baggage tags were still on it, and apparently it had somehow ended up flying to Alaska! How does that even happen? And that is the story of my sign name.
Deaf Talent, Seen and Heard
Really good article about #DeafTalent and how visibility is increasing for the Deaf community!
Article here.
(Almost) Two Months of Denmark [VIDEO]
I haven’t posted anything for a month, and I have been busy! I was recently on holiday for a week, in Berlin, Germany and Utrecht/Amsterdam, the Netherlands, so I hope to have a video from that soon.
For now, you can see pictures from the trip on my Instagram (www.instagram.com/shan_no_nosays). Enjoy!
Rochester and Europe [VIDEO]
Procrastination and Busy Bees
I haven’t really posted any content about what I’ve been doing in Frontrunners for the past two weeks, and I do want to do more, but wow! I did not expect us to be this busy, and often I’ll end up being too tired by the end of the day to do anything other than work on my Danish via Duolingo, browse the ‘net or play games with the group. I also have been procrastinating a little with my video. I think I might just upload a short one with my Rochester clips, then make a brand new video that’s more recent and fresh than the video I took before (a week ago, I think, which is old to me). Also, I do have clips of the area around Castberggård, so I think I’ll make a video (hopefully soon) all of Castberggård and the area around it. Tomorrow, the group’s going to Copenhagen for the weekend, so maybe I’ll make a short video from that. Please just ask me if there’s anything you want to know, or would like to see!
On another note, I’m currently working on making a Patreon page. For those who don’t know, Patreon is basically a website where people can give some money to support a person, similar to GoFundMe or Kickstarter. Patreon is more a month-to-month basis or project to project basis. I’m hoping this can help me a little bit while I’m in Denmark. You can also go to the link below to get a more in-depth explanation.
https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204606315-What-is-Patreon-
Danmark og Castberggård
Frontrunners 11 has begun! I flew into Copenhagen yesterday, met up with Sarah and took the bus to Vejle where Florencia and Laure met us with Ole (one of the teachers), and two Navigator students. From there, we went to Castberggård, had dinner then got a quick tour. We got our stuff settled and move around things in the house a little bit. The last person to arrive was Aleluya, her flight got delayed, then she had to wait for the train. But she got here! Five are now one. Today was a little more in depth about what we will be doing up to December. It looks very exciting! We have a busy time ahead of us! After middag (dinner), we did some activities with the Navigators group, and boy, were they energetic! They’re mostly younger, in the teenager years. And now I’m very tired. (It’s around 22.00 for me in Dansk time, and I’ve been up since 7:30. Plus a little bit of jetlag.) Godnat!
From left to right
Sarah: Denmark
Aleluya: Spain
Florencia: Argentina
Laure: France
Rogan: United States
A Deaf Perspective: ASL Signs and Slang | ft. Ren Putz
Ren and I talk about different ASL signs that have no English equivalent, and some slang. Any time we use an ASL sign, they will be bracketed with [ ].
This is the second collab I did forever ago in May, and many thanks to Ren for being patient with me! Enjoy!